


Burning Bridges

by olivemartini



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Angst, Johnlock - Freeform, M/M, Romance, s03e01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-26 19:34:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7587124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olivemartini/pseuds/olivemartini
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Why did they come after me then?  If you were the one closing in on them, why did they come after me?"</p><p>Because though John seemed intent on not seeing it, to kill him was to kill Sherlock, and it must have been too tempting to resist bringing the consulting detective to his knees.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burning Bridges

"Why did they come after me then?"  He sounds angry, but not as much as he should, considering that someone just tried to burn him alive. Sherlock wondered if he was correct in thinking that he sounded a little be bit resigned and more than a little weary, as if Sherlock's return had brought something rather unsavory back into his life, like John had somehow missed the two years of peace Sherlock's absence had given him.  Staring at the ash smudged across his cheeks and remembering the feeling of the flames licking his fingers, Sherlock would have to agree that his miraculous return had not done anyone any favors.  "If you were the one closing in on them, why come after me?"

Sherlock stared, tripping over his tongue in an attempt to stutter out an answer.  John was a smart man, a brilliant man, and though Sherlock had long since been resigned to the idea that even the brightest of those around him would have to struggle to figure out problems he could solve in his sleep, Sherlock had thought that this would be obvious.  Does John not understand what a power play it is to prove that the most important, most treasured, most loved thing in ones life could be ripped away from them at any moment, whisked away like the dust in the wind?  That sometimes it is not physical pain that is the most troubling (And Sherlock would know, with his aching back screaming in protest and singed skin yelling at him to stop moving) but the panic that rises in ones throat, the way a heart will break in your chest, the punch in the gut that comes with the knowledge that you can't save everyone?

But maybe John doesn't. 

If Sherlock has learned anything over the past few years, it has been that sometimes people don't want the truth.  That sometimes his deductions are unpleasant realities that people avoid, not because they are too stupid to see them, but are so focused on avoiding pain that they will turn a blind eye to the most obvious of transgressions.  It's because of this that he does not tell John that failing to save him would be worse than any method of torture anyone could devise.  He does not say that John is where his strength lies, and his heart.  Anyone with half a brain can see how much he loves him, could see that Sherlock would let entire countries burn in order to save the ones he loves.  The world could be reduced to ashes and the great Sherlock Holmes brought to his knees as long as John was still standing.  It must have been too great of a temptation to resist for this invisible enemy, knowing that for a moment, they had the chance to utterly destroy the world's one and only (and the most famous) consulting detective.

But you don't say things like that to a man that punched you in the nose no less than three times when you came back from the dead, especially if he had somehow fallen in love with someone that most definitely wasn't you. 

"I don't know."  Lie.  It's all he does anymore. "But I intend to find out."

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on Instagram @alwaysscripturient


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